Wednesday, 7 August 2013

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places (the TV series) is back on our screens this summer, and hence available on iPlayer for those who missed some episodes last time round. The series was first broadcast in March/April 2013 and will be showing again starting 4 August 2013. It is based on my book, which was published in 2011.

The BBC's programme website has information about upcoming episodes and also links to iPlayer versions, which remain active for about six weeks after first broadcast.

The series proved a ratings and a critical hit. But alas it probably won't make a second series in its current guise: the subject has attracted the interest of other presenters, so the topic will at least live on. Celebrities are everything in the media, but I'm sure the power of holy places to tell their own stories will shine through whatever the format.

Sales of my book and the new iPad/iPhone version (available on iTunes) have helped open up our sacred landscape to a new generation of pilgrims, but it is the subject itself that generates all the enthusiasm. Holy places have lost none of their power to enlighten and enchant.

About Me

I'm a journalist, writer and now PhD student, currently focusing on Britain's Christian heritage. In my latest work I am investigating the earliest forms of Christianity in the landscape: looking at 'Celtic' and Anglo-Saxon practices in nature. So I have embarked on a PhD at Roehampton University, funded by the AHRC, to look at the nature rituals of the early church in Britain. In other words, how did the new religion engage with traces of the old: on mountains, in caves, at the foot of sacred trees, on islands, even bathing in the sea and rivers. I'm discovering some surprising answers which I will publish in due course, my PhD having started in October 2014.
My main focus for the previous five years was uncovering Britain's sacred heritage, trying to make it accessible to as many people as possible. To this end I wrote my guidebook Britain's Holiest Places, which was made into a BBC Four television series in 2013. This is turning into something of a life-long passion, and I'm delighted at all the support and interest other people share in this rich and very important topic: how religion connects people to place.